Dogs learn words by linking them to size and textures rather than shapes, a new study claims.

Researchers from the University of Lincoln found that when a dog learns to associate a word with an object, it makes the association in a completely different way to humans.

When toddlers pick up language, they learn by associating words with the shapes of objects.

Fetch! When you tell your dog 'ball' it understands 'furry small thing' rather than 'spherical thing' claims a new study into how man's best friend picks up language

For example, toddlers who learn what a ‘ball’ is and are then presented other objects with similar shapes, sizes or textures will identify a similarly-shaped object as ‘ball’, rather than one of the same size or texture.

Share this article

DOGS PREFER MOZART

Studded collars might suggest otherwise, but new a new study shows dogs prefer classical music to heavy metal.

Research from Colorado State University found dogs in animal shelters were less likely to bark and more likely to sleep when played the likes of Mozart or Beethoven.

Heavy metal, by contrast, was found to have the opposite effect, inducing nervous shaking and barking, and stopping the canines getting any sleep.

The findings have implications for welfare of animals in stressful environments and could lead to new guidelines for the care of dogs in shelters.

Lori Kogan, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, played different music to dogs in a shelter over the course of four months and recorded their responses.

She reported her findings in the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour.

Dogs have been shown to associate words with objects, such as toys, but their learning process was unstudied.

In the study, researchers presented Gable, a five year old Border Collie, with similar choices to see if this ‘shape bias’ exists in dogs.

They found that after a brief training period, Gable learned to associate the name of an object with its size, identifying other objects of similar size by the same name.

After a longer period of exposure to both a name and an object, the dog learned to associate a word to other objects of similar textures, but not to objects of similar shape.

The difference in the thought process between dogs and humans may come down to how evolutionary history has shaped our sense of perceiving shapes, sizes and textures, said Dr Emile van der Zee, who led the research.

'Though your dog understands the command “Fetch the ball”, he may think of the object in a very different way than you do when he hears it,' Dr van der Zee said.

'Where shape matters for us, size or texture matters more for your dog.

'This study shows for the first time that there is a qualitative difference in word comprehension in the dog compared to word comprehension in humans.'